We are going on day four of a fever for little Dashy. He is such a trooper, and literally sleeps most of the time. But when he is up, all he wants is me!
Except for the times when he makes his way back to his crib and pulls out his favorite blanket and holds it in one hand while sucking his two fingers on his other. I love it, and I hate it. It is great until I have to make dinner or help Scout with homework. But those moments where I do get to just cuddle up with him, there is nothing sweeter in all the world!
Scout’s class had a big Chinese New Year assembly today.
It was the Mandarin Immersion Program’s gift back to the school.
So I geared Scout up in an outfit too small, and Navy in the Chinese colors with some chopsticks in her hair.
She clearly looks thrilled!
Scout thought it was so cool to bring Navy to school, that he invited her to lunch with him.
Even though she looks quiet, she LOVED it!
Then she played at recess with Scout and his best buddies.
Scout loved showing her off.
When we finally went into the Multi-Purpose Room, Navy was all riled up.
Uh Oh!
But look at how Scout entered the room.
DOn’t worry, his stage mom gave him a few countdowns with her fingers, and he was back to his smiles.
The performance was awesome!
Literally.
The kids sang a few songs, and then sat down for the rest of the show.
Which included Kung Fu fighters, and a real dragon show where he ate a head of lettuce at the end, and spit it out over the whole audience.
Luckily it landed all over Navy and me — because that means we will have a happy and prosperous New Year!
SWEET!
The beauty of southern California is the weather.
Nothing beats a February swim with rambunctious kids.
Rambunctious?
Take a look at what happened when I was getting towels for the pool…
There was a marker party in the car.
Look at the cutest boy in the world who became the victim of others shenanigans.
Thank goodness we were off to the pool where the water would do the washing.
But when we got there, more shenanigans started.
Here is Navy trying to get Dash and me with water.
But this sweet little guy just watched and clapped for the other kids the whole time.
He clapped extra hard for this boy that Dash is obsessed with.
And after an hour or so, the shenanigans settled down and Dash summoned everyone out of the pool.
(The new and the old.)
My computer has been a nightmare for the last 6 months. SO when Micah told me he got me an early Valentine’s present, and it was the most beautiful new 32 Gigs of RAM IMAC, I jumped for joy! I was beyond excited an dgot that baby fired up minutes after getting it! And as for my old computer — the kids just inherited it. So as I sit with my new beauty, and they sit across from me playing Sesame Street games, we bond IMAC style.
There is no secret that Scout is the happiest guy in town. So when two weeks ago, things changed, I melted down! He was somber and sulky and never stopped complaining or whining. He was also belligerent and has fought with Navy (who instigates a lot of it) incessantly.
Literally, I was crushed.
CRUSHED!
I couldn’t believe that my perfect boy was no more. I am not ashamed to admit that I cried to Micah over it. And to be totally honest, we aren’t completely out of the woods, but I can see the light!
Hallelujiah that I can see the light.
So, I was so distraught over it, I figured that something HAD to be going on at school. So I talked to Ms. Shih, and apparently a darling little girl in class kissed Scout on the back. And because he was the boy who got kissed, the other boys had a hay day with it. Which, in turn, made Scout basically despise that little girl. And because he was so annoyed at her, he was pretty stinky to her. Thank goodness he has a guilty conscience because he felt really bad about treating her meanly. So bad that Scout tried to avoid school and even broke down in tears to Micah when he took him. It was all pretty tragic.
That was the nutshell version.
He is back at school, and things seem good. He stayed home two days from being sick, and was anxious to return. Thank goodness. When I picked him up today, the class stayed after to have a picnic on the grass. So for an hour, I observed him around all of his little classmates.
My observation:
That darling little girl has a serious crush. Scout has a bazillion friends. Every single girl was chasing Scout, and doing him favors like bringing me his sweatshirt. He was hanging with the boys. And he was at the head of the pack when it was the boys turn to chase the girls.
My hypothesis (or in Navy’s words: Hypotamus):
Scout likes the girls, and the girls like Scout.
I REALLY hope he takes my sound advice of “girls are disgusting”!
At least until he’s about 18!
Megan is my “craft with the kids” mentor.
I think she did it every day of their life.
So when I saw Fimo clay, and remember her kids playing with it incessantly, I bought up a bunch of colors.
And this stuff was a hit!
I even loved playing with it.
But two hours later, my kids did also.
Their little paws made people, rainbows, hearts, rings, etc.
We baked it afterwards, and now we have all of those lovely little things in every little nook and cranny in the house.
But who cares — a few scattered pieces of art gets overruled by two hours of nice/quiet play any day!
My little Dashy is if nothing else…..persistent. If I got a penny for every time he says “MUH” which means more, I would be a rich lady. I think it is the sweetest little word the first three times I hear it in the day. But when I hear it for the 800th time, I find it a little — should we say repetitive. But in his defense, he only asks for “MUH” when he doesn’t get what he wants. So it looks like I get the guessing game wrong a lot of the time. But when you are at sushi, and there is a table full of soybeans, tofu, rice, miso soup, water, and about ten other items, the guessing game can be very difficult. So after me trying everything for ten minutes (because I want him to have the item he wants instead of me force feeding him), I finally realized the only thing I hadn’t offered was my mom’s diet Coke. YEAH RIGHT! SO that day at sushi, I heard “MUH” for another ten minutes.
Navy has been on fire for a while. She is literally hilarious. Naughty, but hilarious. In just the last 24 hours, the three following things happened:
1. She walked into Bella’s room and said, “here is a big pencil, and a smaller one. The big one is larger than the small one, and that’s my hypotamus.” Upon a little digging, she meant “hypothesis”.
2. We were at the Lego store, and she spent her time building a little girl out of their pieces. When she showed it to me, I said, “Oooh, I love it. What is her name?” She said, “I don’t know.” So in an effort to help the girl out, I said, “What about Mandy?” To which she was annoyed and said, “I told you her name — it is ‘I don’t know’”. And she referred back to “I Don’t Know” several times over the next ten minutes. This girl never let a smile creep in, or let her gig fall apart.
3. While we were at the playground at the mall, Navy and Scout did what they do best — they went money hunting and found a quarter. When they asked for more money to ride the mechanical bus, my mom and I both respnded with the same answer — “[we] don’t have money for things like that”. So she came up to me and was distraught, because she didn’t have enough money, and how was she going to ride it? I told her if she stood in the middle of the mall and sang beautifully, she might get a few cents. So she walked right over to the middle of the playground and sang her little heart out. It was sweet, but she made nothing! Too bad. I guess I should have let her in on the part about putting an empty hat at your feet.
Micah took his annual trip to Vegas with the boys in his family for the Superbowl.
So I told the kids we were going to have a “Weekend of FUN”.
It started by signing Scout up for Karate. He has wanted to for a long time, but he wasn’t old enough.
But the Sansei said he is now good to go.
Then an afternoon full of playing around with the kids.
(I must add that they were still sickies at this point, so it was pretty mild play.)
This is the “parade” they set up.
Then I put all of the couch cushions on the floor of the Family Night Room to make a “Family Bed”.
We rented The Bee Movie (which was darling), and watched it together and then all slept there for the night.
I’ll admit that it was really comfy and fun to all wake up together.
Then our sickest of the bunch needed to have a warm bath with his oatmeal bottle.
I die over this perfect boy!
When he is sick, he is even better because all he wants to do is be held by his Mama.
Then it was off to pancakes with B and Ka and Nonnie.
And to cap off a fun Saturday morning, we spent the afternoon at Jumpin’ Jammin.
Scout had a hay day.
Navy loved showing Dash the ropes of being a big kid.
Scout did too, and was taking Dash on his favorite — the family train down the slide.
This was the caboose who lost contact as soon as the camera came out — nothing like a girl who likes to be different!
But that same girl is an awesome rock climber, so I guess different is kind of good.
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The weekend had a few other goodies like a frozen yogurt outing, and puzzle time.
We had the best time.
And the best part is that every time they referred to the “Weekend of Fun”, they used the same Jazz hands I used the first time I told them about it.
It was like our own little message in sign language.
Dash is quite the little comedian. If he gets a laugh on anything, he will do it and then repeat, and repeat and repeat again.
Like the time he banged his head against my desk on purpose.
He did it so many times, I had to stop his little joke.
And when I did, he had a big red mark for the next 30 minutes on his head.
Or here he is hiding in a cupboard he isn’t supposed to be in.
He will hide and wait for us to open the door.
He is literally looking for the laugh, and then laughs a ton by himself.
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I am crossing my fingers that he isn’t that kid — you know…the class clown. But I do love that a little comic relief goes a long way for him. I love the fact that when he is throwing one of his huge tantrums where he runs across the room and covers his mouth before falling to the ground to cry, all I have to do is laugh. And when anyone around laughs at him, his pouty face immediately turns to a smile, and those cries turn into laughs.
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